Deep Learning with Convolutional Neural Network for Differentiation of Liver Masses at Dynamic Contrast-enhanced CT: A Preliminary Study

Purpose To investigate diagnostic performance by using a deep learning method with a convolutional neural network (CNN) for the differentiation of liver masses at dynamic contrast agent–enhanced computed tomography (CT). Materials and Methods This clinical retrospective study used CT image sets of liver masses over three phases (noncontrast-agent enhanced, arterial, and delayed). Masses were diagnosed according to five categories (category A, classic hepatocellular carcinomas [HCCs]; category B, malignant liver tumors other than classic and early HCCs; category C, indeterminate masses or mass-like lesions [including early HCCs and dysplastic nodules] and rare benign liver masses other than hemangiomas and cysts; category D, hemangiomas; and category E, cysts). Supervised training was performed by using 55 536 image sets obtained in 2013 (from 460 patients, 1068 sets were obtained and they were augmented by a factor of 52 [rotated, parallel-shifted, strongly enlarged, and noise-added images were generated from the original images]). The CNN was composed of six convolutional, three maximum pooling, and three fully connected layers. The CNN was tested with 100 liver mass image sets obtained in 2016 (74 men and 26 women; mean age, 66.4 years ± 10.6 [standard deviation]; mean mass size, 26.9 mm ± 25.9; 21, nine, 35, 20, and 15 liver masses for categories A, B, C, D, and E, respectively). Training and testing were performed five times. Accuracy for categorizing liver masses with CNN model and the area under receiver operating characteristic curve for differentiating categories A–B versus categories C–E were calculated. Results Median accuracy of differential diagnosis of liver masses for test data were 0.84. Median area under the receiver operating characteristic curve for differentiating categories A–B from C–E was 0.92. Conclusion Deep learning with CNN showed high diagnostic performance in differentiation of liver masses at dynamic CT. © RSNA, 2017 Online supplemental material is available for this article.